With all the snow that’s been falling I’ve been keen to head up high and check out what snow conditions were like at Roger’s Pass. Skinning from the visitor center up the Cannaught drainage we were pleasantly surprised with coverage, the trail had more than enough snow to skin and enough to cautiously ski down at the end of the day.

Louie showing how to getter done **** coarse language, not suitable for all viewers**** (or at work with the volume turned up)

The skintrack up towards Hospital knob was typical a typical early season grunt, steep and roller-coasterish with a few hands on trees to pull yourself up. Good honest balance and character building.

Our first lap up led us to the top of Bruins ridge and after an awesome run we threw the skins back on and aimed for Video peak to get some turns in on it before it got tracked out. The turns off of Video were aesthetic but not quite as good as our first so we went back up to Bruins for another burn.

Overall I was surprised by snow cover at the Pass right now, there are some boulders showing and the windward sides of ridges in the alpine are starting to get thin but with the right terrain selection great turns can be found. The snow feels well settled and supportive to skis, hasty pits and hand shear tests showed thin windslabs buried 15-20 cm down and easy shears around those layers. Also worth noting is the 10 mm surface hoar growing with the calm winds and clear nights, I would expect conditions to get a lot more sporty with significant snowfall and load on this layer.